Prepared for the Soil Association by Martin Cottingham and Amy Leech
After an absence of a year this invaluable report has re-appeared and is now available on the Soil Association website (download the full report at www.soilassociation.org/marketreport). Except where noted it covers the calendar year 2008.
Here is the Executive Summary:
- UK sales of organic products increased overall by 1.7% in 2008 to over £2.1 billion, growing strongly in the first six to nine months and then falling back in the face of the economic downturn in late 2008 and early 2009
- Sales through multiple retailers increased by 1.8% to £1.54 billion; sales through independent retailers are up 1.4% to £568 million
- Ninety per cent of UK households buy organic products
- Dairy products account for 29.5% of spending; fresh fruit and vegetables for 26.2%; red meat and poultry for 8.9%; beverages for 8.6%
- Sales of organic cotton increased by 40%; total UK sale of organic clothing and textiles reached £100million
- Sales of organic health and beauty products increased by 69% to £27million
- Global sales of organic food and drink reached an estimated £23billion by the end of 2007 – an annual increase of 7%
- Organic production accounts for 0.65% of global agricultural land. Organic farming is practised in more than 140 countries on over 1.2 million farms
- The amount of land managed to organic standards in the UK increased by 10% in 2007 to 676,387 hectares (ha). Organic farmland accounts for 3.9% of the UK’s agricultural land area